Abstract
Exploitation of wind energy is rapidly growing around the world with large wind farms being set-up for the generation of electricity. It is reported in the literature that while converting the wind’s kinetic energy into electrical energy, the wind turbines may modify the transfer of energy, momentum and moisture within the atmospheric layers in the surroundings of the farms. In this work, an attempt is made to study whether the wind farm situated at Roches Noires (operational since January 2016), in the north-east part of the island of Mauritius, creates such changes within a sufficiently large space around the farm. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical model is employed for this endeavour due to the unavailability of measured weather data in regions close to the farm. The WRF model results are first validated with recorded meteorological data from several meteorological stations around the island and then simulations are carried out for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017. Analysis of results for two selected locations (one upstream and one downstream) around the Roches Noires wind farm demonstrates a slight decrease both in wind speed and precipitation, one year after installation of the farm.